


You Are My Sunshine

by lalahss



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Battle Scenes, Cats, Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Nervousness, Painting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26248885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalahss/pseuds/lalahss
Summary: After being approached by his very bubbly crush, Ignatz finds himself faced with the most daunting challenge of his art career yet- painting Annette Fantine Dominic.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Ignatz Victor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: 2020 Ultra Rarepair Big Bang





	You Are My Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!! This was a piece for the 3H Ultra Rarepair Big Bang, and it was such a joy to write!!!! Massive props to @lycalleon on Twitter for bringing to life the visuals of this fic, and we hope you all enjoy!

It was all so simple how it had started. Ignatz had been sketching one of the monastery cats against the castle walls after lunch, and the combination of the warm sun and delicious food had made him especially mellow. The black cat, one who was prone to hanging around the stable looking for stray apples to play with, was licking its tummy contentedly, its downy fur looking especially chocolate-y in the sunlight and on Ignatz’s sketchbook page. With each stroke of his pen, he captured the cat’s lazy motions, and soon the lines on his page began to form a decent-looking cat. He was detailing the lidded gaze of the cat when he heard light footsteps come up near him, and a giggle.

“Hey, Ignatz!” Ignatz looked up and instinctively drew his sketchbook to his chest, before realising that he was safe, it was Annette. Her eyes were wide, and she had a little smile quirking at the edge of her lips as she looked at him and the cat. “What are you drawing?”

Ignatz’s artistic prowess was well-known at the Officer’s Academy, but he was notoriously guarded about who could see his art. Annette, the newest recruit to the Golden Deer, was easily the most curious about his art, but that didn’t mean his omnipresent self doubt was going away any time soon. As a matter of fact, she was ethereal in the way she held herself, and he had to disregard that beauty as he gripped onto his sketchbook and made sure she couldn’t see his latest foray.

“Hey Annette, it’s uh…” He paused, and tried to think of a good excuse. “It’s just a quick sketch, nothing big, just small, something to warm up with!” His blathering was somewhat embarrassing for him to hear, but Annette just seemed more intrigued, a smile growing across her face.

“Can I see?” She clasped her hands in front of herself, her eyes bright and curious, and Ignatz was scarcely able to speak as she pouted at him ever-so-slightly. His hands moved before his head, and his sketchbook was soon in her hands before his mind could scream. Oh no--

“Ooooooooh!!!” She giggled, and Ignatz felt his face burn. Oh no. “Hehe…”

It went without saying that her opinion mattered to him a lot. By that, saying he had a crush on Annette would be an understatement, and even suggesting that she mattered a lot to him was enough to make him run away yelling. He was the one who told Professor Byleth that Annette would be a good addition to the Golden Deer, the one who made sure that she’d be safe in battle, the one who couldn’t help but drop everything and help her if she needed anything, and that suited him just fine. His life, after all, seemed a combination of devotion to his studies, his friends, and Annette, and the way Annette’s face lit up whenever she saw him was more sustaining than food and water. At least, Ignatz thought the stolen Lorenz-ism was apt. She, after all, was the closest thing he had to a muse.

“Uh, please don’t judge it too harshly, I’m just warming up, it’s more for practice than anything el—”

“This is so good!!!” Annette’s squeal startled him, and left his mouth empty of words. “Goddess, Ignatz, this is so adorable!” The cat below her ceased its licking, and looked up at her curiously. “You made him look so cute!”

“Oh!” Ignatz felt a fire blaze across his cheeks, and then smiled, embarrassed but secretly quite pleased. “Thank you very much.”

“To be honest, Marty’s a very adorable cat, so it wouldn’t be hard to make him cute! But-- oh, that’s not what I meant! He looks so cute normally, and you’ve made him cuter!”

If Ignatz was more like Lorenz or Sylvain, he would’ve puffed his chest up and given Annette a winning smile with a side of flirty winking. However, all he could do was stutter and blush.

“Th… Thanks, I mean, I do think Martritz is cute, and I mean… Martritz-- Marty! Uh… Marty is a very lovely model. Very calm. Docile.” Marty took this moment to move over and sit on Ignatz’s foot, and Ignatz burned bright red. “Ma… Marty… yes… very docile.”

“Hehe!” Annette giggled again, and Ignatz gave her a ‘what-can-you-do’ smile, along with a shy shrug. Marty rolled over, and seemed to smirk at Ignatz knowingly from the ground. What can you do, indeed.

“Do you have a favourite subject?” She looked over to him, and Ignatz nodded, willing his mind to say something coherent.

“I… I enjoy landscapes and sunsets, especially… especially when there’s another subject along with it.” Ignatz immediately paused, and could sense what Annette was going to ask as she raised an eyebrow out of pure curiosity.

“Do you draw people too?” He felt himself nodding before he could even think twice. “Have you drawn anyone at the monastery?”

“No, no… Not yet, anyway…” He loved iconography as much as the next devout believer, but the Goddess was omnipresent, so it would open up many spiritual questions about how exactly he could paint someone who wasn’t even there, and---

“Would you be open to… painting me?” She’d paused politely, giving him space to back out, but he found himself feeling a wash of excitement. Oh Goddess… was this real?

“Of course, Annette… I mean, we are friends, and that’s what friends do… right?” Suddenly, before he could curse his inability to not friendzone himself, he found himself being squeezed– no, hugged– by her. Her giddy chattering in his ear burned through him, as his heart threatened to break out of his chest and hold her so hard she couldn’t let go. Instead, he awkwardly gave her a hug back, hoping his heartbeat wasn’t as loud as it felt in his eardrums.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!” She pulled away after a blissful few seconds, and sat in front of him, handing him back his sketchbook. “When would you want to?”

Ignatz looked down at Marty, seeming to know what was going on, and sighed with relief as Marty rolled off and waddled over to a shady bush. “Would now be good?”

Annette giggled, and nodded. “I mean, it’s a free day today, and I think all the Deer will be preoccupied with the Intermediate Sword Tournament!”

“True.” Ignatz shut his sketchbook, and gave Annette a small smile. “I’ll lead the way to my room then.”

And with that, they both made their way to his room, both wearing excited smiles that they hid from the other.

\---

“Mind sitting here?”

Ignatz had set up a chair, draped in a blanket from home, and put some dried sunflowers on the side to give ‘balance,’ as he’d call it, not that he’d admit that to anyone. It seemed woefully pitiful, he thought as Annette giggled and sat down in it, a pitiful attempt at a rustic aesthetic. However, the yellows of the flowers set off the red in her hair, which made the cream-coloured throw balance out the warm tones. It worked, he admitted to himself, and if he had time, he’d sketch out a field behind her. Pastoral aesthetics were ones he excelled in, but he wondered if it would be enough.

“Ready?” His throat felt dry, but Annette’s lips curved upwards in a smile as she nodded.

“Super duper ready!” They both giggled, but Ignatz felt his hands tremble as Annette relaxed, leaning back into the chair, ready to be the obliging model.

The afternoon sun made Annette look positively radiant, and Ignatz found his heart fluttering as he started to sketch her outline. Her lips were curved upwards in a wistful smile as she looked out the window of his room, and her cheeks had a gentle blush across them. He inhaled as he drew the outline of her face with a feather-light touch, and let his breath go every time he looked up at her. She was… words didn’t do her justice. The ginger in her hair was like a gentle fire that ached throughout his heart, and detailing each strand made him feel a yearning for something he’d never felt before. It was similar to love, but it left a burning in his heart that was only fanned with each stroke of his pencil. By the Goddess…

A scene entered his mind as he drew each freckle adorning her face, one where she wore a similar face to the one she had on now. It was the time the Golden Deer had a welcome picnic for her, and she’d been followed by a fluffy brown cat with a loud meow on her way to the field just outside the monastery. He remembered her dimpled grin as she sunk onto the picnic blanket, her excited giggle that made the birds chirp with her, her soft smile that sent his heart into overdrive… and then the yelp of surprise when she saw the cat nestle into her clothes.

“Baaaaaah!!!” 

Adorable, Ignatz thought, and still thought as he pictured that cute, startled expression on her face. He quickly erased the lips he had drawn, and replaced them with that parted “o,” adding in a little cat-like shape in the corner of the page. He could easily work this in somehow… surely…

He etched in the blush of her cheeks as he recalled the way she’d pet the cat with one hand and eaten sandwiches with the other, whispering gentle words to the sleepy feline as it decided to nod off. Hilda asked her whether she minded the cat’s indulgent resting, and Annette replied with a giggle as she swallowed her mouthful of bread.

“She’s just having a nap in the sun… just like you!”

Hilda’s face had contorted into a frown, before it rested into a smile, realising there was no insult behind her words.

“You should take a leaf out of her book… and mine! You should rest sometimes too, ‘Nette.”

“I have to keep studying though,” Annette responded dreamily, her mind seemingly elsewhere. Hilda picked up on this, and passed Annette a small chocolate slice. She took it happily, and Ignatz felt a small heat burn through his body as he pictured the small chocolate streaks across her lips as she bit down into it. He could scarcely remember the rest of the conversation before Hilda left to go and drag Claude out of a nearby pond, but he could recall the corners of Annette’s delicate lips and their dark tinge. Her hand lazily brushed molting cat hair into the breeze, and as the feline settled herself amongst the many pleats in her skirt, she took on an expression of serenity. No amount of joking from Raphael, talk about sweets from Lysithea, or awkward chit chat with Marianne could shake her, and as the Deer asked her about every topic under the sun, Ignatz felt his heart begin to race.

In the present, he felt himself reacting similarly. Even sitting in front of her and sketching her made his heart race in a way that was surely unhealthy for long periods. He didn’t care though, as her eyelashes fluttered shut and he raced to commit every curve of her face onto his paper.

He remembered his awkward shuffling towards her, knowing he was the one who’d brought her into the fold (even if she hadn’t known it), and his quiet voice as he spoke to her for the first time as a Deer to a Deer. They had sparred before, and they had eaten together, but they’d never had a conversation outside of circumstance.

“Enjoying her company?” Ignatz gestured to the cat sitting in her lap, and she giggled.

“Yes!” Annette giggled, and Ignatz felt a laugh bubble up inside him too. “Sumia is a sweetheart, and it doesn’t surprise me that she followed me out!”

“Are you… close with the cats?”

“Yup!” Annette stroked between her ears, and Ignatz leaned on his arm towards her as she took another sandwich. “They always seem to be around, and I do like making sure they’re well fed…”

Ignatz, for the first time in that moment, noticed the crumbs all along her skirt, and felt a small grin inch its way out from between his lips. “You shouldn’t feed them, you know…”

“But they’re just so cute,” they both said at the same time. Ignatz’s eyebrows raised as Annette gave him a wide grin, and soon they were both laughing, Sumia as sleepy as ever. The conversation flowed from there, and soon Ignatz didn’t want to stop talking, and Annette seemed to feel the same. Topic after topic, and they didn’t stop until they’d run out of food. Did Ignatz care what the other Deer thought, the two of them talking away the hours? Not really, but he did care what she thought about art, and beauty, and food, and, of course, cats.

He fleshed out Sumia in the corner of the page, and smiled. Perfect. A little bit of flavour to an otherwise straightforward piece.

Time passed, and Annette’s beauty didn’t wane in the golden afternoon sun. She’d occasionally ask him how he was going, and he’d respond neutrally, trying to capture that curiosity, that adoration in her gaze before it’d float away, as he fleshed out her body and got ready to start painting.

He needed a direction to take her in. Her softness and elegance was alright, but he knew she was more than that. Someone who thought that of her had never seen her raw power with an axe, or her deftness with a wind spell. Someone who assumed she was as proper as Edelgard, or as calm as Mercedes. Someone who couldn’t see that she wasn’t just pretty, but beautiful.

Goddess, she was beautiful. 

Memories floated through his mind like a river, and he dipped his hand in between each wave to find the right one. She was stagnant in front of him, posing taking its toll on her, but he could see dynamic poses in battle taking shape in his mind. But which one to choose?

His question almost seemed to be answered the minute she rolled her shoulders ever-so-slightly, trying not to disrupt his painting. He looked up at her, and then grinned. He knew exactly what to paint.

When he’d discovered Annette was learning how to use an axe, he found it odd. She looked quite delicate, and seemed for all the world like just another delicate mage. So when she’d changed into her athletic wear and picked up an axe from the weapons rack during training, Ignatz had felt his heart start to race. They’d sparred together, and it became clear that Annette was quite skilled with her axe. Ignatz could profess he wasn’t the most proficient with his sword, but he couldn’t confess the thought of using an axe terrified him to no end. So for Annette, his sweet friend from the Blue Lions, to use one?

It was kind of hot, as Sylvain would say.

On her first mission with the Golden Deer, clearing out an enemy outpost, Ignatz had stayed with her to make sure she’d be alright, but she was soon the one protecting him as various bandits surrounded the Deer. Her shoulders heaved with each swing, but she was adeptly dispatching each enemy, before they could even get a hit in. Ignatz fought alongside her, but was still in awe of her raw strength. How could someone so small hit so hard?

A stray arrow flew through the air towards the ground, and Ignatz quickly notched an arrow and fired it up in the direction of a hiding archer on a hill. Another arrow flew past him, and before he could think twice, Annette was racing up towards the archer. Ignatz nervously fired arrows as he followed her up the steep incline, and pulled out his sword to get rid of the archer. Before he could even process his surroundings, Annette swung, and the archer was history. Ignatz fought off a few stray bandits, but Annette seemed to rout the enemy faster than he could even dream of.

The battle was in the Deer’s favour, but towards the end, Annette seemed to be quite tired. Ignatz pulled her to the side as Hilda and Lorenz finished off the last few bandits with Claude beginning to take down the bandit leader, and sat down with her.

“You’ve been working so hard!” He passed her a vulnerary, and she giggled.

“Thanks Ignatz, but I couldn’t have done it without you!” She opened it, and took a sip. “You were always covering me.”

“Well, it’s what anyone else would do.” He looked over her strong, but small, shoulders, and mentally raised an eyebrow. She was strong enough herself… she was protecting him more than he was for her.

Annette gave him a soft look, and Ignatz, even in the present, felt his knees go weak. “Thank you.” Even in her most tender moments, every word felt strong, intentional. She was formidable...ly cute.

“It’s alright.” He gave her a small smile, and she leaned forwards, looking at him intently. Her hand was delicately sitting on the rock next to her, and Ignatz looked over at it, blushing. It was so close to him… but he couldn’t do that. He could hear Claude doing who knows what to the bandit leader, and it didn’t feel like the right time or place. Along with that, his poor heart was threatening to burst a hole through his armour, and that would be all sorts of embarrassing.

To the sounds of Claude sending all manners of arrows and axes at the bandit leader, with Byleth shouting something about experience behind him, Ignatz lost himself in Annette’s gaze, and, he hoped, she’d lost herself in his.

She was like a sun, with everything, and everyone, merely orbiting her beautiful radiance. 

In the present, Ignatz paused, and looked at Annette, looking up at him gently.

“Everything alright?” She gave him a little grin, and Ignatz jumped, looking startled, before realising he’d probably zoned out. Oops.

“Yep! Everything’s fine!” He got his paints together, and smiled. He knew exactly what direction to take, and it was going to make Annette look like the sunshine she was.

“Okey dokey!” She settled back into her chair, and Ignatz smiled as he poured out yellow paint onto his palette. This was going to be good…

Strokes of warm tones began to spread across the canvas, and soon Annette’s visage began to take shape. Ignatz took care to shade every critical detail, and make sure the boldness in her character shone through. Her eyes gleamed bright with fervor, her hair as fiery as the swing of her axe, and her burgeoning muscles took on an emphasis through her uniform. Her eyelashes seemed to catch the light better than anything else, so Ignatz took the sun and washed it across her face, her lashes acting as miniature sunbeams sending the light across her face.

Each petal of the sunflowers seemed to take on a radiant quality as he took Annette’s sun-like radiance and scattered it across each flower. It was decently impressionist, but it felt right in this context. He took care to make every little glimmer of light gleam on the canvas, and beamed as he created a small prism effect through each petal. Warm shades sunk below their blooms, and the ground below Annette was warm with sunset tones, matching her hair. The fluffy feline was bathed in the light, giving her a side-eye that was more friendly in tone than malicious, and Ignatz got her to match Annette’s warm expression. She was bold, but she was more of an exuberant outpouring of afternoon tones than the loud power of lightning. Her shadows only emphasised her natural light, and oh… it was just as beautiful as the lowering sun beside her. 

Ignatz paused. The sun was lowering. He had been working in a fevered state, and hadn’t even noticed that hours had passed. He looked over at Annette, to see her looking at him warmly.

“Are you… hungry? Should we get dinner?” He put down his paints, and Annette shook her head cheerfully.

“Hehe!” She smiled, and wriggled a little bit in her chair. “I… Maybe soon?”

“Would you like a break?” Ignatz looked at her, and she nodded quickly. “My apologies for making you pose for so long--”

“It’s fine, Ig!” A cry came out of her, and she quickly turned away, looking at the flowers behind her. She paused after her outburst, and Ignatz could hear her breathing. “I mean… Ignatz…” 

“You can… you can call me whatever you wish.” He stood up straight, feeling the muscles in his back complain as he unfurled them, and gave Annette a smile he hoped she could feel. “We can continue this tomorrow?”

“No… you’ve been working frantically, and I’d hate to cause you to have to get back into your rhythm!” She giggled, and Ignatz chuckled to himself, before he paused, another memory in his mind. 

“Hmm…”

“Hmm?” Annette turned around, and Ignatz saw a blush spreading across her cheeks. The sight of it made his heart quiver, and he picked up his paintbrush, trying to focus his sudden burst of energy on something else as he gently spun it around in his hand. “You’ve thought of something?”

“Yes, but… don’t worry about it right now!” He rolled his shoulders, and Annette giggled as a crack sounded. “Just have a break.”

“I’m done.” She moved back to the seat, and Ignatz frowned.

“That wasn’t even a minute, Annette.”

“Call me Annie.”

Ignatz’s heart started pounding, and he felt his mouth go dry as he nodded. “Annie.” His voice was soft, and he was certain Annette heard the deeper undertones in it. Of course, Ignatz had a fairly high voice, but that deeper element had never come out before to his ears. And judging by Annette’s bashful expression, she hadn’t either. He quickly turned to his palette, and set up his colours. He had to do this. He had to.

Colours streamed onto the canvas as Ignatz let his mind go back to that time, the time when she truly did take him out of his rhythm. It was one he’d tried to forget, embarrassing as it was, but he pushed through. For Annette, he told himself.

Professor Byleth was choosing the student to represent the Golden Deer in the Heron Cup, and Ignatz had been dreading dance classes. Sure, he was relatively nimble on his feet, and he could pick up the movements, but he felt every eye in the room on him whenever Byleth made him dance by himself.

Annette had been to a few practices with Hanneman, but it was her first with Byleth, and Ignatz had felt his body go hot and rigid when Byleth partnered her up with him. He could remember Annette’s kind visage, telling him it was only two hours of dancing, and Byleth getting everyone to start warming up. 

He could remember her hand on his shoulder, steadying him and stoking the fire in his heart, and her other hand in his. He could barely feel her waist for fear of flying away, but he steeled himself, putting all his energy into the starting steps of the box waltz. He didn’t realise how tense he was until he felt her hand rubbing his shoulder, a motion so soft and gentle that he barely realised he’d pulled her closer to him and placed his feet between hers. Her breath started feeling warm on his cheeks, and while he couldn’t remember the exact sensation, he could remember words to describe how he felt.

Comforted. Warm. Dizzy in a good way. Confident. Needy. …

He didn’t want to think any further, knowing she was right in front of him, sitting in a wicker chair, oblivious to his crushing thoughts.

As he moved his mind back to the feeling of her hand in his, he wondered if she ever thought about it too. If it was also her favourite daydream when she couldn’t sleep at night, and wanted to feel less alone in the dark. If his bright-red face in front of hers was the one thing that made her want to get up and train in the morning, and truly become a knight--

He was just projecting now.

Annette picked up the steps quickly, and Ignatz found them both entering into a quick rhythm, gliding circles around Lorenz and Leonie, who were next to them. Their feet were quick, and the warm tones of the hall only served to hone himself in on his beautiful partner, whose cheeks were a soft rosy tone. She was all that was there, and all that could be there. All that would be there.

The image of her with her axe, slicing through enemies like butter, spliced in, and he could see that boldness in her gentle resting face. Her affection with the cat soaked through his skin, and soon it was all he could feel as he captured every shadow of the setting sun and each gasp of light before it moved further down the room.

As Byleth had moved them into a more complicated dance, he had taken the lead with Annette, pulling her around the room in hard to follow motions as their professor tried to teach Raphael which foot was meant to go in front of the other. Ignatz had realised it was easier to people-watch than look into Annette’s intoxicating eyes, and she seemed alright with it, her eyes also wandering around the room, with the occasional giggle as she saw something amusing. Annette had held onto him nervously at first, and Ignatz had tried not to pull her in even further (lest she hear his thrumming heart) before conceding that it did feel rather nice having her close to him, and they floated around the room as they surveyed their classmates. None of them, bar Lorenz, seemed to be having as much fun as them, and that was fine by them.

In the present time, Annette was bid farewell by the sun in a spectacular manner, and Ignatz smiled as he saw her close her eyes softly while a bright sunbeam crossed her face. Her eyelashes truly looked iridescent, and he could barely stand it. He knew it wasn’t the best use of the slowing sun, but he took a moment to look at her restful expression, and felt his heart warm.

She’d done the same thing in the hall, when they were dancing. After however many minutes of dancing in circles, she’d shut her eyes and faced Ignatz, at which point Lysithea’s height difference with Raphael didn’t take up all the thoughts in his mind as he looked at Annette. She was beautiful then, not least of all because her nose kept blowing soft air onto his cheeks, but because of her entire being. She was so close, and trusted him…

He wanted to kiss her.

It happened sometimes in battle, when she’d land the perfect critical blow on the enemy, or slice through some unsuspecting foe when they weren’t looking. Sometimes it was when she was making kissy faces at the monastery cats. Occasionally during meals, when she had a streak of cream on her lips. Even when she was heavily wounded and needed patching up from Marianne, and she’d give Ignatz a thankful look as he sat beside her, not quite holding her hand but keeping it a polite distance away from his hand.

But oh, this moment...

At the ball itself, when he asked her to dance on a dare from Claude, and she accepted, hair gently framing her face, makeup perfect, lips soft, cheeks flushed. He could barely think at that dance, and the paints he’d bought with the bet money barely compared to Annette’s waist, all warm, and his heart leaping through his chest as she pulled him closer. He was close enough to kiss her, but he could barely keep his body flowing to the music, let alone think about tilting his head ten degrees to the right and capturing that supple top lip in a gentle kiss…

That was when she’d thrown off his rhythm, the rhythm of his life.

He’d barely been able to speak to her after the ball, that warmth extending through him whenever he spoke to her, so for her to come up to him, scarcely two weeks after, and ask him to paint her… It was hard for him to comprehend. Hard, but so, so, so wonderful.

Alone in his room at night, he’d dance, and pretend she was in his arms. Someday, maybe she’d dance, but maybe…

It was a thought he kept in his mind to think about on a hard day, which all his days were without her. It kept him warm at night, under his minimal blankets, and made him have dreams that left him sound asleep until the morning. It made him want to be around things that reminded him of her, like the cats, the sun, the feeling of freedom. It was all her… and she was all he could think of.

His canvas was nearing completion. The last rays of the sun were tucked under the windowsill, and Annette gave him a small smile as she saw him giving her a warm look. He was certain she could see it all over his face, him thinking about her soft hand and delicate body, and the absolute fire that raged inside her.

“What is it?” She asked, knowing the answer.

The sun? That feeling from when we danced together? “You.”

The dimming light couldn’t hide the blaze across her cheeks and the curve of her lips.

Every detail finished itself. Ignatz was merely a vessel for the art he was creating, and he didn’t mind a bit. The sunflowers were iridescent, the sunlight incandescent. There was only one more thing he wanted, but the mere thought of it left him blushing. Annette noticed, and smiled as he gave her a nervous grin.

“What can I do to help?” His mind screamed at him, and his heart pounded, but he stood up, knees shaking, and went towards her with a small smile.

“I… I just need one more thing.”

“Anything you want, I’ll do.” A second paused, and Annette and Ignatz both went red as the implications stood out to them both. However, they both laughed together as she buried her face in her hands, a tension taken out of the air. “I mean… like… that sounded so bad. I’m not reading Mercie’s romance novels again.”

“It’s alright.” Ignatz comprehended the words, and then blushed harder as he sat down next to her. “Truth is… it’s kind of in that vein.”

“Oh?” Annette’s voice squeaked, and she made a scrunched up face as Ignatz took the courage to lean over and pat her shoulder.

“You don’t have to, but… yeah…” He paused again, and Annette giggled.

“Ig, you’re adorable.” She raised her hand up, and gently patted the side of Ignatz’s face. “Truly, truly adorable.”

“You are too! I mean… you’re so adorable. I mean… I don’t want to reduce you to that, but you are…” His feelings were threatening to spill out of him, but just one look at Annette made them want to overflow. “You’re beautiful, and bold, and brilliant, and I can barely think when you’re around.”

“Same.” Her hand stroked his face, and Ignatz felt his nerves bundle up in his stomach. What to do, what to do? He moved his hand from her before he could think too hard, and took her hand to kiss it. The minute his lips met her hand, he felt a burning unlike anything he’d ever felt before course through his entire body, and it was a moment before he could pull away and look up at her.

“Annie, I like you a lot.”

A pause. Before Ignatz could worry, two very strong arms wrapped around him, and an excited squee came up from the girl who was holding him. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly as she made an array of excitable noises.

“I like you toooooo!!! Eeeeeeeee!!!” Ignatz felt a laugh bubble out of him, and he pressed a kiss to her cheek as she added, “Iggggyyyyyyyy!”

“Annie!” It was the biggest smile he’d ever felt cross his face, but the minute he pulled away he saw one that matched his right in front of him. “I do. I like you so, so much!”

“Yay!!!” More cheering, and before he could think any harder, her lips met his.

Everything beyond that point was moot. He could have gotten lost in her soft, gentle lips forever, and he wouldn’t have minded. He could’ve felt the wet insides of her lips for all eternity, and never want to leave. When her hands got lost in his hair, he was about to cry with joy, and as her body pressed up against his, the feeling of her heart beating just as hard as his tied it all together.

It was a few minutes before they pulled away and Ignatz went over to the canvas to put the final touches on Annette’s visage. He turned around the canvas to her to see, and he wished he could have painted the look of joy on her face.

“Iggy… I look so…”

“Radiant? Glorious? Beautiful?”

“Loved.”

A pause. Ignatz sat down beside her, and she took his hands in hers. “You are loved.”

“And so are you.”

The final rays of the sun descended below the horizon, and the only light that they could see came from the buildings around Ignatz’s room. He couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming outpouring of love when he looked at Annette, and even the smallest amount of light made his heart catch on fire. What more could he want?

Her.

“I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Go here for the beautiful art! I had no idea how to format it in (oops) 
> 
> https://twitter.com/lycalleon/status/1300972743232372736?s=20


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